


May the Best Ranger Win

by sunnydalehart



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:18:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnydalehart/pseuds/sunnydalehart
Summary: Kimberly makes a deal with Trini and Jason to make them shut up. She's pretty sure it backfires.Based off of this tumblr post: https://incorrectpowerranger.tumblr.com/post/163054888435/billy-what-do-you-guys-want-from-the





	May the Best Ranger Win

**Author's Note:**

> This is so dumb, but I felt like I had to write smth for that post  
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

“Could you step down from your _‘I’m the leader; I’m always right,’_ platform and admit that you’re just fucking _wrong_?” Trini’s almost yelling it at him, but that isn’t her fault. He raised his voice first, and she’s had enough arguments with her parents that something like that won’t slow her down.

Jason scoffs, shaking his head. “No. Because this time I _am_ right. If _you_ could slow down and stop jumping to conclusions--”

“Please just shut up for five seconds!” Kimberly calls out from her spot on the couch. They’ve been arguing for a good fifteen minutes and she’s about to lose her mind. And, yes, she _could_ go to her room to sleep, but she’s too stubborn to let people who _don’t even live there_ force her out of the room. “I’m about to start crying from exhaustion. Let me sleep.”

Trini automatically steps into the doorway of the kitchen, now in view of Kimberly. “Tell _him_ to shut up! He’s being a jackass.”

“ _I’m_ being a jackass?” Jason asks, disbelief clear on his face.

“ _Yeah_. Thank you for agreeing with me.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously, Trini?”

“What do you mean, _‘seriously’_? You think I’m joking with you right now?”

“ _Oh my god. Guys!_ ” Kimberly yells again. She’s pretty close to jumping up and _making_ them shut up herself. “It seriously _does not matter_ who stole the last Zebra Cake. It isn’t that deep.”

Jason shakes his head. “That’s not the point, Kim. It’s about who’s _right_ and who doesn’t know how to admit they’re wrong.”

“ _You_ are always stealing snacks. Admit that you knew I called dibs on it but took it anyway. I heard you say you were hungry enough to eat a horse earlier, and _guess what, Jason?_ A _zebra_ is in the horse family.”

“It’s a pastry, Trini. It isn’t a real horse. And dibs don’t mean anything when _it isn’t your house._ ”

“Dibs still applies! Kimberly recognizes that as a rule, and since this is her house, you have to respect that, too.”

“If I know that, then _why would I steal your Zebra Cake?_ ”

“‘Cause you’re an ass who thinks rules don’t apply to him!”

“ _Seriously!_ ” Kimberly had a pillow pulled over her head, but she removes it to yell one more time. “How about this? Whichever one of you can shut the fuck up for the longest amount of time, I’ll go on a date with. Sound good?”

Trini raises her eyebrows at that, _immediately_ shutting up.

Jason’s a bit more skeptical. “Wait. Seriously?” He turns to Trini, and she gives him a look like she’s challenging him. If this is a game, she’s _so_ ready for it. “No, that didn’t count.”

“Dead serious, guys,” Kim says, but she’s already halfway to falling asleep. She actually didn’t think that would work, but since it did, she can _finally_ get some rest.

“Wh-... But… What counts as keeping quiet?”

Kim gestures vaguely. “I’ll let you guys figure that out.”

Jason turns back to look at Trini, but she’s left to rifle through one of the kitchen drawers. Then she finds whatever she was looking for, does something at the counter, and then returns with a piece of paper.

_“Being quiet and not talking it is my_ _thing _ _, Scott. Just give up now. It’ll save a lot of time.”_

He actually considers it for a moment, because she’s right, but instead he takes the paper back to the counter to write his response.

_“Nice try, Gomez. I’m not about to give up before we’ve even started.”_

Trini thinks it over before nodding. She can respect that. Jason holds a hand out as if he wants to shake hers, but she holds hers out for a fist bump instead.

Trini’s pretty sure she’s got this one in the bag, but, in the spirit of sportsmanship or respect or whatever, may the best Ranger win.

 

\---

 

It wasn’t supposed to go on this long. That night turns into the next day, and then the next, and the next, and suddenly Jason and Trini have been keeping up with this “competition” for a couple of weeks now. Kimberly is growing continuously more surprised as the days go on. She tells Zack that she _honestly_ thought Jason would screw up or forget after a day, but he seems to be taking this as seriously as Trini is.

She’s starting to regret turning this into a game. Somehow they’re more annoying now that they _aren’t_ saying anything.

It gets harder to stay quiet when all five of them are hanging out. Three people are talking at once, throwing questions around, and they’re all trying not to make messes in each others houses. It gets confusing.

At one point when they’re all in Jason’s living room scrolling through Netflix for something to watch, Billy walks up to tell them that he and Kimberly are about to stop by the store to stock up on “movie night essentials”. He asks if they need anything while they’re out.

Both Trini and Jason attempt to mime out what they want.

“What?”

They start over, looking to Zack and Kimberly for interpretation help.

“Can you guys use words?” Billy asks, and Zack shakes his head.

“No, they can’t.”

Billy tilts his head to the side. “Why not?”

“Kim couldn’t sleep because they were arguing,” Zack says, smiling. He finds the whole situation _very_ amusing. “So she made a deal with them and said she’d go on a date with whoever could stay silent the longest.”

“Really? How long have they been going for?”

“About three weeks.”

How did he not notice that…? Things _have_ been a little chaotic lately, but that still seems odd. He must have something else on his mind.

Trini rolls her eyes and shakes her head. Then she holds up two fingers, and does some weird hand movements that don’t seem to make sense.

“ _Two and a half_ weeks,” Kimberly clarifies. “It’s getting out of hand.”

Jason shakes his head and then throws his arms up to show off his muscles. Trini stares for a moment, and then shoves him hard enough that he falls off the couch.

“Uh…” Kim trails off. “I _think_ he was trying to say he’s too strong to give up now, and Trini just thinks he’s an idiot.”

Trini nods, smiling in content.

“How much longer do you think it’ll go on for?” Billy asks as he watches both Trini and Jason like he’s worried about them. (Kim’s pretty worried about them, too.)

Kim sighs. “I don’t know. But if they don’t figure this out soon, we’ll be stuck with two mute Rangers for who knows how long. I’ll be _married_ to someone else before one of them gives up.”

Trini isn’t so sure it’ll take that long. She can feel Jason wearing down. Just a couple more days, and she’ll _have it_. But patience is key.

When Trini realizes that this is going to take more than a few days (or weeks), she tries coming up with ways to make Jason slip up. She’d call him from another room during one of their team sleepovers, and peek around the corner to watch him answer and open his mouth to say, _“Hello,”_ before he stops himself. She ducks back into the room when he walks away--in an effort to keep herself from being seen--and she waits with the phone pressed to her ear before _a very loud_ death metal song rings through and she has to stop herself from screaming in surprise. _Jason_ has to stop himself from laughing when he hears a thud that he can only imagine was Trini falling to the floor. [Holding his phone up to Billy’s laptop speaker while he played something from Trini’s Spotify playlist was an _amazing_ idea.]

They both try to scare each other a few times, but Jason stops jumping out at her when she responds with punching him in the face. He can figure out a _different_ way to win this.

He might be a little scared for how much longer this thing drags on for.

 

\---

 

Kimberly is _seriously_ regretting ever making this deal with them. It’s been over a month, and _she’s_ had enough of it. (She can only sit through so many nights of charades where _only_ Jason and Trini are acting things out. Especially when _she_ has to work as the referee, because being on either of their teams would be “unfair” and “biased”.)

[Whatever date comes from this better be the _best fucking date_ she’s ever been on.]

So she’s going to speed things up.

The first time wasn’t on purpose. Trini had a nightmare. Kimberly felt it. She climbed in through Trini’s window at two in the morning to calm her down. And when she asked what happened, if Trini was okay, and if she’d rather have space, Trini only shook her head. Kim was about to change her approach and ask something else, but remembered at the last second that the _quiet game_ thing was still going on. She wasn’t trying to get her to talk for that reason, but, if it had worked, it would’ve been a bit of a relief.

She sat with her for a half an hour before they tried to get some sleep.

“You aren’t going to give up on this stupid silence thing, are you?”

Trini nuzzled up closer to her instead of answering. So, that would be a _no_.

 

Kimberly _was_ trying to get Jason to talk when she stole his favorite shirt. (She also might’ve taken his shoes.) He started out by just gesturing, trying to mime out his question. That consisted of him sweeping his hand out to signal _where_ , holding a hand to his chest for _my_ , and grabbing the hem of his shirt for _shirt_ . [Honestly, if they’ve been going on this long, she’s surprised neither of them have attempted to learn _any_ sign language yet.]

“Where’s your shirt? You’re wearing it.”

Jason shook his head, and pulled on his shirt again. He patted his chest and then put his hands together to make a heart.

“Your… what?” Kimberly knew what he was asking, but she was hoping that, if he got fed up enough, he might just break his silence. “Your… heart… shirt? _‘Did you take my shirt, Hart?’_ Is that what you’re asking?”

He paused and tilted his hand back in forth in a _“sort of”_ motion. Then he tried to do the _exact_ same motions, only more aggressively.

Kim grabbed his hands so he would stop flailing, and very pointedly looked him the eye. “Dude. I have _no idea_ what you’re trying to say. Just _talk to me_.”

It seemed like he was actually considering it for a moment, but he instead resorted to writing his question down.

_“Did you take my favorite shirt, and where is it?”_

She tried to drag it out a little longer, but Jason wasn’t budging. Getting one of them to _speak_ might be harder than she thought.

 

She tried with Trini again-- _actually_ tried this time. Forgot what personal space was during one of their team movie nights. (It was supposed to be a bonfire night, but when only three of the five of them would be speaking, it seemed like they’d be better off doing something else.) All five of them were already pretty close, but Kimberly was _much closer_ , cuddling up to Trini like she was a teddy bear.

And Trini… Trini was just trying to _breath_ , _focus on the movie,_ and _keep her mouth shut_ . But it was dark, and Kimberly was _so close_ , and under the blanket they were all sharing they were both wearing shorts, so their bare legs constantly brushing together was _pretty different_ from when the fabric of Zack’s sweatpants occasionally swiped against the side of her leg and foot.

_Deep breaths. Stay calm._

She didn’t have butterflies in her stomach. She had really fucking pissed off _bees_.

“Have you seen this movie before?” Kimberly whispered, and her mouth was _right_ next to Trini’s ear. It was so unnecessary, but to be honest, Trini didn’t really care about what was or wasn’t necessary.

If Kimberly were to _ask her_ to make any sort of noise and lose the competition, she would do it. She was _so weak_ , but she would, without a doubt, do anything Kimberly asked her in that moment.

Kimberly didn’t get a chance to do that, though. Zack screamed something at the TV, and that caused Billy to jump, making his large bowl of popcorn fly everywhere. It was distracting enough to ruin the mood.

 

\---

 

Kimberly is close to calling this whole thing off because it really is getting _ridiculous_.

They’re all morphing out of their armor after a particularly long day of training when Kimberly decides it’s a good time to make _the last_ move. They’re _probably_ tired enough that their guards will be down, so the chances of this working are in her favor.

She grabs onto the collars of their shirts before they get too far away from her. Jason almost chokes, more out of reflex than of it actually hurting him, and Trini swings around to swat at Kim’s hold on her.

“Hold up, guys. We need to talk.”

They both give her the same look. One that says, _“Seriously?”_ because she should know it isn’t going to be that easy to make one of them mess up _now_.

Kimberly shakes her head. “Whatever. You know what I mean. You've gotta give up this game.”

They both shake their heads. There's no way they'd just _give up_ after _this_ _long_.

“I miss your voices.”

Jason still keeps a solid neutral look on his face, but Trini’s expression softens. _There_ . The crack in the armor. Kimberly _totally_ has this.

“Fine. But I need to hear both of you start talking again, so if you _won't_ let it go, we'll have to compromise. I'll just go out with both of you.”

Wait. What?

That wasn't the deal.

But… _maybe_ they can make that work.

Jason shakes his head, looking around where they stand in the pit before running off to the side. He goes for the notebook and pen by their water bottles and returns with a message written out.

_“This isn't just about getting the date with you Kim. It's about who gives in first. We're testing our endurance and strength.”_

Trini has to hold back a laugh while she grabs for the notebook out of his hands.

_“Speak for yourself, pretty boy.”_

Kimberly sighs. “So if Trini got the date, and Jason won the silence contest, you'd both be happy?”

Trini nods.

Jason is still thinking it over.

“Alright, T. Let's go.” Kim gestures towards the ship. “Doughnut date?”

Trini grins as she steps forward towards Kim, turning slightly to shoot finger guns at Jason. He glances down at the notebook again before scribbling down another word and jogging over to jump in front of the girls before they get too far away.

_“Seriously?”_

Kimberly barely glances at the paper. “You tell me.”

It feels like a trap somehow.

Trini steps closer to Kimberly and holds a hand up to her ear as she pretends to whisper something to her. Kimberly, thankfully, gets the hint.

She smiles and nods. “Yep. There’s your answer.”

Jason stares for a moment before he lets out a deep breath and says, “Thank god.”

Trini jumps at that, pointing at him and smiling, and Jason realizes that he was too gullible and messed up.

“Fuck yes!” Trini half shouts, but she pauses to cough because she hasn’t really talked in a while. They had a couple of exceptions--for home and school--so they could avoid getting in trouble, but that still left _very minimal_ usage of their voices. “I told you, Scott. I fucking _told_ you.”

Jason nods, and even though he _lost_ , he’s still smiling a bit. “You did. I guess I should’ve listened.”

“You put up a good fight, dude,” Trini says, stepping forward and holding her hand out. Jason smiles again as he shakes it.

“Finally.” Kimberly sighs. “No hard feelings, Jace?”

He shakes his head. “Nah. I have a feeling you knew who would win the whole time. I don’t need a date, Kim. I’ve got my eye on someone else.”

Well, that solves _that_ problem. But, still… _What_ ? “Are you saying you only agreed to that deal to _prove something_?”

“Yes. I’m the red leader; I have a reputation to uphold with my team.”

“What if you had won?”

Trini shakes her head. “He wouldn’t have. Ever. I could go quiet for _years_ , Kim.”

Kimberly rolls her eyes. “Okay, hypothetically.”

“I would’ve celebrated my victory, explained everything to you, and told you to take Trini out instead. And I’m almost positive you wouldn’t have been disappointed by that.”

“So let me get this straight,” Trini says, holding a hand up. “You’re saying _none of this_ would’ve had to happen if you didn’t have this thing about being macho and proving your ‘strength’ as a leader?”

Jason thinks about that, and then crosses his arms and nods. “Pretty much.”

“Wow. You _are_ a dumbass.”

“But you had fun, though. Didn’t you?”

Trini shrugs. “Maybe. Sort of.”

“Then we’re all happy,” he says, smiling and stepping to the side so he can retrieve his water bottle from the other side of the room. “You two have fun.”

Trini and Kimberly are frozen for a second, processing what just happened. That was… _odd_ . The past _month and a half_ of keeping quiet has kind of been for nothing. But she _did_ manage to win. Trini got through that fair and square, and no one can take that away from her.

“So, about that date that I owe you.” Kimberly says, and Trini turns to her slightly shocked.

She may have forgotten that _the date_ was actually something that _would_ happen, and wasn’t just a dream she started to convince herself was real. But it is real, and she’s going on a date with Kimberly, and Kimberly _wanted_ her to win-- _wanted_ to take her out on a date. She can hardly believe it.

“That date,” Trini repeats, nodding.

“Yeah.” She smiles. “We can still go get doughnuts right now, but I think the _real_ date should be, like… Friday.”

She nods again. “Friday.”

“Yeah, does that sound good?”

Does that sound good?

Yes.

Absolutely.

[ _She’s going on a date with Kimberly Hart._ ]

**Author's Note:**

> [Zack stole the last Zebra Cake]


End file.
